17 indicted in Calif. murder-kindapping ring
13.08.09
SAN DIEGO — Members of a accumulation of Mexican drug traffickers have been indicted in the murders of nine people in the San Diego area — including two victims whose bodies were dissolved in acid, authorities announced Thursday.
The band of 17 men also collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom payments for kidnappings, the indictment designated. Victims were abducted by men dressed in police uniforms and wearing badges while walking down the streets or in their driveways, then held in rented homes and sometimes killed, authorities said.
“Los Palillos” club — “The Toothpicks” in English — operated in the late 1990s and original 2000s in Tijuana, Mexico, as a cell of the Arellano Felix cartel, named for one of Mexico’s most disreputable drug trafficking families, said Mark Amador, a deputy district attorney. The band against of U.S. and Mexican citizens moved to the San Diego area around 2002 to deal in marijuana and methamphetamine after a captain was killed in a feud inside the Tijuana-based cartel.
Source: San Angelo Standard Times